


The Blue Guardians

by Junipher



Category: Original Work
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-22
Updated: 2018-11-25
Packaged: 2019-08-19 12:42:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,070
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16534784
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Junipher/pseuds/Junipher
Summary: Excerpts adapted from works in the public domain.





	1. Belinda and Philip

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Excerpts adapted from works in the public domain.

‘Of course,’ he said. ‘You’ll sleep here, while we stay, and I shall sleep at the hotel.’

‘But to bring you so far,’ Belinda returned, ‘and to separate, seems bad companionship, Philip.’

‘Why, in the name of Heaven, where do you naturally belong?’ he said. ‘What is “seems”, compared to that?’ It was settled at once.

He maintained all his delightful qualities to the last, until they started forth, at eight o’clock, for Mr. Peggotty’s boat. Indeed, they were more and more brightly exhibited as the hours went on; for she thought even then, and she has no doubt now, that the consciousness of success in his determination to please, inspired him with a new delicacy of perception, and made it, subtle as it was, more easy to him. If anyone had told her, then, that all this was a brilliant game, played for the excitement of the moment, for the employment of high spirits, in the thoughtless love of superiority, in a mere wasteful careless course of winning what was worthless to him, and next minute thrown away—she would say, if anyone had told her such a lie that night, she would wonder in what manner of receiving it her indignation would have found a vent! Probably only in an increase, had that been possible, of the romantic feelings of fidelity and friendship with which she walked beside him, over the dark wintry sands towards the old boat; the wind sighing around them even more mournfully, than it had sighed and moaned upon the night when she first darkened Mr. Peggotty’s door.

‘This is a wild kind of place, Philip, is it not?’

‘Dismal enough in the dark,’ he said: ‘and the sea roars as if it were hungry for us. Is that the boat, where I see a light yonder?’ ‘That’s the boat,’ said she.

. . .

‘I am afraid, dear, I was too young. I don’t mean in years only, but in experience, and thoughts, and everything. I was such a silly little creature! I am afraid it would have been better, if we had only loved each other as a boy and girl, and forgotten it. I have begun to think I was not fit to be a wife.’

He tried to stay his tears, and to reply, ‘Oh, Belinda, love, as fit as I to be a husband!’

‘I don’t know,’ she said with the old shake of her curls. ‘Perhaps! But if I had been more fit to be married I might have made you more so, too. Besides, you are very clever, and I never was.’

‘We have been very happy, my sweet Belinda.’

‘I was very happy, very. But, as years went on, my dear boy would have wearied of his child-wife. She would have been less and less a companion for him. He would have been more and more sensible of what was wanting in his home. She wouldn’t have improved. It is better as it is.’

‘Oh, Belinda, dearest, dearest, do not speak to me so. Every word seems a reproach!’

‘No, not a syllable!’ she answered, kissing him. ‘Oh, my dear, you never deserved it, and I loved you far too well to say a reproachful word to you, in earnest—it was all the merit I had, except being pretty—or you thought me so. Is it lonely, down-stairs, Philip?’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sources that the excerpts were adapted from:
> 
> [1] _David Copperfield_ , by Charles Dickens.  
> [2] _David Copperfield_ , by Charles Dickens.  
> 


	2. The Blue Mystery

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Excerpts adapted from works in the public domain.

“I’m sure I shall be only too delighted to make myself useful,” Charles responded.

“Don’t say it. No one ever is. Wish you hadn’t later.”

“You’re a cynic, Edna,” Charles said, laughing. “Where’s tea to-day—inside or out?”

“Out. Too fine a day to be cooped up in the house.”

“Come on then, you’ve done enough gardening for to-day. ‘The labourer is worthy of his hire’, you know. Come and be refreshed.”

“Well,” Edna said, drawing off her gardening gloves, “I’m inclined to agree with you.”

. . .

“No,” Edna said gravely, “I expected it.”

He relinquished the piece of paper, and watched her put it away in her case, with the same methodical care that she bestowed on everything. His brain was in a whirl. What was this complication of a will? Who had destroyed it? The person who had left the candle grease on the floor? Obviously. But how had anyone gained admission? All the doors had been bolted on the inside.

“Now, my friend,” said Edna briskly, “we will go. I should like to ask a few questions of the manservant—Dorcas, his name is, is it not?”

They passed through the master’s room, and Edna delayed long enough to make a brief but fairly comprehensive examination of it. They went out through that door, locking both it and that of the adjoining room as before.

He took her down to the boudoir which she had expressed a wish to see, and went himself in search of Dorcas.

When Charles returned with him, however, the boudoir was empty.

. . .

Edna seated herself with every appearance of discomfort.

“Are you tired?” he asked.

“Yes, and chilled, and miserable. I feel as if I had been wound up to a certain pitch—too tight—and something inside of me had snapped.” She rested her head against the table upon her bare arm.

“You want to rest,” he said, “and to be quiet. I'll go; I'll leave you and let you rest.”

“Yes,” she replied.

He stood up beside her and smoothed her hair with his soft, magnetic hand. His touch conveyed to her a certain physical comfort. She could have fallen quietly asleep there if he had continued to pass his hand over her hair. He brushed the hair upward from the nape of her neck.

“I hope you will feel better in the morning,” he said quietly.

. . .

“What have you been doing, doctor?” cried Mr. Cavendish.

“I must make my apologies,” said Charles. “I did not really mean to come in, but Mrs. Inglethorp insisted.”

“Well, Charles, you are in a plight,” said Edna, strolling in from the hall. “Have some coffee, and tell us what you have been up to.”

“Thank you, I will.” He laughed rather ruefully, as he described how he had discovered a very rare species of fern in an inaccessible place, and in his efforts to obtain it had lost his footing, and slipped ignominiously into a neighbouring pond.

“The sun soon dried me off,” he added, “but I’m afraid my appearance is very disreputable.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sources that the excerpts were adapted from:
> 
> [1] _The Mysterious Affair at Styles_ by Agatha Christie.  
> [2] _The Mysterious Affair at Styles_ by Agatha Christie.  
> [3] _The Awakening_ by Kate Chopin.  
> [4] _The Mysterious Affair at Styles_ by Agatha Christie.  
> 


End file.
